Rural England Prosperity Fund

On 3 September 2022, the Government  announced a new, £110m Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF)   which will help to improve productivity and strengthen the rural economy and rural communities. The REPF is a top-up to and complementary to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and succeeds EU funding from LEADER and the Growth Programme which were part of the Rural Development Programme for England.  

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) announced in March 2025 that the Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF) will receive £33 million in continuation funding. This funding is aimed at eligible local authorities throughout England, to enable them to invest in local businesses and community initiatives to foster local growth and address specific rural challenges. 

For 2025/26, the following REPF allocations have been received:  

The following grant scheme will be available during 2025: 

Available funds are now extremely limited and close to fully committed. As a result, anyone interested in applying must first contact BMSDCEconomicDevelopment@baberghmidsuffolk.gov.uk for further information. There may be an opportunity to apply for funding on an invitation-only basis if your project meets the mandatory grant criteria, but we cannot guarantee that funding will be available.

For full details on eligibility, please refer to the Guidance Notes.

In the first instance, potential applicants will need to provide:

• The value of the grant they wish to request
• The district in which they operate
• A brief overview of their project
• Confirmation that the project can be completed and the grant claimed by 1 March 2026

Please note that this is a capital only fund (capital means assets that have monetary value, such as equipment, real estate, and inventory) offering support of up to £10,000 per application for businesses / organisations within Babergh and Mid Suffolk. By exception grants may be agreed of up to £15,000 for projects which strongly support the Net Zero Infrastructure or Farm Diversification priorities. The fund intervention funding rate will be 50% of the total project costs up to the maximum grant amount which means the project must be match funded at 50%. Payments are made at the end of the process, so the project will need to be fully funded before any reimbursements are made.

Projects must meet one of the following priorities:

1. Investment in net zero infrastructure
2. SME investments and diversification
3. Farm diversification outside of agriculture
4. Visitor economy business expansion

For full details on eligibility, please refer to the Guidance Notes.